Canberra Secondary School - eLearning

Welcome to e-learning at Canberra Sec School.

I hope that you are learning meaningfully and fruitfully through this technology-assisted platform. You are literally born into a digital era and thus the term 'digital natives'. Two decades ago, the use of computers in Singapore schools was at its infancy. Teachers had to share a few computers in the Staff Common Room and computer usage for pupils was only for those who were doing computer programming as a subject at Junior College level.

I only learnt to use the computer after I graduated from university! I deliberately chose to do a module on it while undergoing teacher training at NIE. There was no Windows format then, only DOS, and all one saw on the monitor was green or white text on a black screen. Technology was probably changing just as fast then because different ICT companies were competiting fiercely to be ahead. Different and new versions of software and hardware were launched very rapidly.

I remember learning the word-processing programme called WordStar, in different versions. Prior to that, I did a just-in-time learning of another word-processing software on Lanier computer. It was very slow. When you edit the text, say add a word in the middle of a document, you could literally see the whole document changing and all the words repositioning themselves on the screen. Nowadays, the processing speed is so fast that when you change a text, you see it changes almost instantaneously. Obviously, there was no possibility of photo images or video at that time.

Before I could master WordStar, another word-processing software, WordPerfect, was introduced. It was supposed to be more using friendly but to it was still cumbersome compared to now. For example, to show the the word 'Learn' in bold, I had to type in the command code, ^B. That is, I would type ^BLearn^B. Imagine having to remember all the different command codes and to toggle them on and off. Again, WordPerfect came in different versions.

Microsoft Word word-processing software only came into the picture after WordPerfect. I have not even mention about Apple's word-processing software and other kinds of softwares.

At the same time, the hardwares were also changing rapidly in tandem with the software upgrades. My first computer had 256Kb RAM! In the area of portable storage devices, we now have thumbdrives storing gigabytes of information at low cost. During that time I was happy to store my information on a 5 and a quarter inch disc that could hold 64Kb and cost an exorbitant 70 cents each or $11 per megabyte. Current price is about 0.0625 cents per megabyte.

Technology have really advanced astronomically and is here to stay. It impacts on every area of our living, from recreation, social network, work to learning. We must embrace the potential that technology presents to us and harnass it fully to our benefit. Of course, there will always be shortfalls and dangers that we must constantly guarad against. 

Technolgy allows us to be engaged in e-learning. Though we are not physically together, we can still continue to teach and learn. Technolgy presents to us the ability to learn anytime, any place. But take note that it does not mean 'anyhow'. In fact, technology is able to facilitate self-directed learning and collaborative learning in a virtual learning environment. At the end of the day, the objective is, and a question we must all ask oursleves, "What have I learnt today?"

Have a good e-learning day.

Mr Tan Keng Joo